U.N. - Operation Salaam - donations missing

LP UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A confidential U.N. audit says gross
mismanagement of the U.N. relief effort in Afghanistan has left
millions of dollars unaccounted for.

TX Copies of the audit of Operation Salaam, obtained Tuesday by The
Associated Press, note "there was no U.N. staff in the field who was
well versed in the U.N. financial and administrative policies."
The report names no individuals as being culpable.
U.N. spokeswoman Nadia Younes said, "We"re not going to make any
comments." She said the report was part of an auditing process still
to be completed.
Operation Salaam failed to reconcile its records with the U.N.
office in Geneva in charge of overall operations, the report said.
This led to a French donation of almost $2.5 million being listed
as not received, though records showed it was paid to Operation
Salaam.
* Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, now the chief U.N. official in charge
of Persian Gulf relief efforts, was in charge of Operation Salaam at
the time of the reported mismanagement from 1988 to 1990.
He is a candidate for the secretary-generalship, but drew little
support in the last non-binding straw ballot held by the U.N.
Security Council on Nov. 12.
In the confidential report on Operation Salaam, auditors noted:
- "Some projects were artificially created to absorb personnel
expenditures ..."
- "There was lack of control over the operations and activities
of the field offices in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Kabul, Afghanistan,"
so "questionable expenditures" went undetected.
- "There was a lack of control over funds derived from ... the
cash sale of food commodities and domestic items from in-kind
contributions." For example, the report notes, $2.1 million in such
sales was unaccounted for.
- Some procurement contracts were entered into without
competitive bidding.
- In another instance, "due to a lack of a clear-cut monitoring
system" by the U.N. Development Program and the World Food Program,
"funds realized from the sale of contributions in-kind amounting to
approximately $2 million were not accounted for" by Operation Salaam.
- In 1990, a sister agency, the U.N. Development Program-Kabul
office converted U.S. dollars paid by Operation Salaam through black
market sources "that ranged from 500 to 750 afghanis to one U.S.
dollar," but then payments made by the office locally were charged
back to Operation Salaam "by using the U.N. operational exchange rate
of 55 afghanis to one U.S. dollar."